The air in the Northern Training Camp was thick with the scent of pine needles and cold iron. Located miles away from the capital, this was the elite proving ground where the finest soldiers of Astheria honed their skills. But for Kaito, it was more than a camp—it was a [Sandboxing Environment], a secluded zone where he could test his new weapon and scripts without the interference of the royal spies.
Hiroshi had exhausted his political influence to move Kaito here, away from the prying eyes of the Royal Inquisitor. "You have forty-eight hours, Kaito," Hiroshi said, his breath misting in the freezing morning air. "The soldiers here won't treat you like a prince; they'll treat you like a target. Survive this, and you might actually stand a chance in the duel."
Kaito nodded, his hand gripped tightly around the black quartz hilt hidden beneath his tunic. Since the broadcast from the SYSTEM_OVERSEER, he felt a constant vibration in his palm—a mechanical warning hum that only he could hear.
As Hiroshi left to manage the perimeter, Kaito retreated into the dense, shadowed woods surrounding the camp. He needed to initialize the [Root Blade].
[Command: access_root_directory --target: black_quartz_hilt][Status: Linking to User_Consciousness...][Warning: Sync rate exceeds safety limits. Mental strain: 78%]
"Execute," Kaito whispered.
A hum resonated from the hilt, sounding like the high-pitched drone of a massive server room. From the obsidian hilt, a blade of shimmering, translucent blue pixels flickered into existence. It wasn't solid; it looked like a tear in the very fabric of reality.
Kaito swung the blade at a massive ancient oak tree. There was no resistance, no sound of wood splintering. Where the blade passed, the tree simply... ceased to exist. A perfect, rectangular section of the trunk vanished, replaced by a flickering void of 'Null Data.'
[Action: Erase_Object --Success][Resource Gained: Raw_Mana_Scrap x100]
"Incredible," Kaito breathed, staring at the floating pixels where the wood used to be. "It doesn't cut. It [De-compiles]."
"But it also leaves a trail, little glitch."
Kaito spun around, the Root Blade humming in his hand. Riya was perched on a branch above him, her digital eyes glowing brighter than usual. Her expression was uncharacteristically grave.
"The SYSTEM_OVERSEER has dispatched 'The Hunter,'" she said, jumping down. "It's not a person. It's an [Anti-Virus Program] manifested in physical form. It's tracking the 'Deleted Data' you just created. Every time you use that blade, you're sending a ping to its location."
"Then I'll delete the Hunter too," Kaito retorted, though his heart was pounding.
"You can't. Not yet," Riya stepped closer, her form flickering with static. "Your Admin level is 1. The Hunter is Level 50. You need to [Patch] your internal OS before it arrives. And for that, you need the 'Core of the Woods'—a massive concentration of ancient data hidden beneath this camp."
Suddenly, the [Passive Packet Sniffing] in Kaito's vision went haywire. The blue HUD turned a violent, screeching purple.
[[ ALERT: INTRUSION DETECTED ]][[ ENTITY: THE_HUNTER_V1.0 ]][[ COORDINATES: 100 METERS AND CLOSING ]]
The temperature dropped instantly. The birds went silent. From the shadows of the trees, a figure emerged. It was ten feet tall, a faceless knight made of jagged, black glass. Instead of armor, its body was covered in scrolling red text—the language of the system's execution logs. In its hand, it held a massive claymore that pulsed with dark, corrupted mana.
[Entity Analysis: THE HUNTER][Class: System Executive][HP: 99,999 / 99,999][MP: ERROR]
"Kaito, run!" Riya shouted, but she was suddenly suppressed by a burst of red code, her form forced into a standby state.
The Hunter didn't speak. It raised its claymore, and a wave of red energy surged toward Kaito. It was a [Format_Disk] command—anything it touched would be reset to zero.
Kaito dove behind a rock, the red energy disintegrating the stone into gray dust instantly. He realized he couldn't win a direct fight; his hardware was too weak.
Think, Kaito! Think like a hacker!
He opened his terminal, his fingers shaking. He didn't have the power to delete the Hunter, but he could [Spoof] his own location.
[Command: create_virtual_machine --identity: Kaito_Asci_Duplicate][Action: Deploy Decoy to Coordinates 45.8, 12.9]
A shimmering blue copy of Kaito appeared ten feet away and began running in the opposite direction. The Hunter's 'Eye'—a red scanning beam—locked onto the decoy. It surged forward with terrifying speed, its glass body shattering the trees in its path.
Kaito stayed hidden, his breath shallow. He had a few minutes at most before the Hunter realized the decoy had no 'Soul-Data.' He turned his gaze toward the ground. He could see it now—the 'Core of the Woods.' Deep beneath the soil, massive veins of golden data were pulsing.
"If I can just... [Inject] myself into the Archive," Kaito whispered. He plunged the Root Blade into the ground.
[Command: sudo_ssh --connect: world_archive_core][Warning: Unauthorized Access! Triggering System Alarms!][Accessing... 15%... 42%... 89%...]
Suddenly, Kaito's mind was no longer in the woods. He was standing in a vast, infinite library of golden light. Millions of books, scrolls, and digital streams were flowing around him. This was the source code of Astheria.
He saw the history of the royal family. He saw the 'Variables' that decided who was born with magic. He even saw a file named [Prince_Jiro_Ability_Set].
But at the center of the library, there was a locked door with a massive seal. It read: [PROJECT: RE-GENESIS - ADMIN ACCESS ONLY].
Before Kaito could investigate, the golden library began to turn red. The Hunter had found him. The glass knight's hand reached through the digital void, grabbing Kaito's throat.
[Critical System Failure!] [HP: 10/100] [Warning: User Consciousness is being Corrupted!]
In the real world, Kaito's body was lifting off the ground, held by the Hunter's invisible force. His eyes were glowing a chaotic purple.
"Not... today..." Kaito choked out. He used his final bit of energy to execute a [Logic Bomb].
[Command: execute_logic_bomb --target: self.memory_cache][Effect: Force_System_Reboot]
A massive shockwave of blue and red energy exploded from Kaito's body. The Hunter was blasted back, its glass body cracking under the pressure of the sudden system restart. Kaito fell to the ground, unconscious, just as Kenji and Hiroshi arrived at the scene.
The Hunter stood up, its cracked face glowing with murderous red light. It was about to finish the job when a message appeared in the sky.
[[ MESSAGE FROM: KING_OF_ASTHERIA ]]
[[ Message: CEASE ALL ACTIONS. THE INQUISITOR HAS DECLARED THE ROYAL DUEL AS THE FINAL JUDGMENT. ]]
[[ THE GLITCH WILL BE DELETED PUBLICLY. ]]
The Hunter froze. Its red eyes dimmed, and it slowly dissolved into the shadows. Hiroshi ran to Kaito's side. "Kaito! Wake up!"
As Kaito's eyes flickered open, they weren't blue anymore. They were gold, filled with the scrolling data of the entire kingdom.
[System Reboot Complete][Admin Level: 10][New Feature Unlocked: System Architect Mode (Partial)]
Kaito looked at Hiroshi and smiled weakly. "The duel... it's not a fight for the throne anymore, Hiroshi. It's a fight for the [Delete Key]."